Corporate Strategies in a Digital World: Supply Chain Management and Customer Relationship Management- Development and Integration-Focus

Abstract

These days, the majority of management literature stresses the concept of “learning organizations”, i.e., an organization’s capacity to change. However, it is not easy for people to accept this fundamental aspect especially when it comes to the Internet and technologies’ growing importance in business operations. They claim it’s a temporary trend that will leave little visible change in the way business is conducted. For these businessmen, the philosophy seems to be “keep making better products and offering new services, and the customers will keep buying”. They ignore changes occurring in the buying habits of customers and impact of technology. There are some businesses who are happy to follow the leader and adopt tools like supply chain management. Supply chain management is a recognized discipline to shorten cycle times, reduce inventories, decrease logistics costs and streamline communication process across the business network. On the other hand are the businessmen who understand the learning organization concept and develop a forward orientation. They are prepared to ride the technology wave to new heights and accomplishments by using technology as a defining element in business operations. This chapter suggests a new approach to this new breed of entrepreneurs. In this chapter, we are trying to give supply chain management a customer orientation and to study its results. We highlight the synergistic advantage of linking supply chain management with customer relationship management into a tightly knit network using technology. The main focus is on finding a solution to deal with Internet empowered customers and to learn how to apply technologies demanded in the new digital economy.